Ukraine’s President Suggests Jerusalem as Site for Cease-fire Talks
Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had an hour-long telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday evening, part of his mediation efforts
Russia’s war against Ukraine has entered its 18th day. Casualties are mounting, and the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine is now nearly 2.7 million, according to the United Nations. All this comes with increasing calls for a cease-fire.
One possible location proposed by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for peace talks is Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke by phone with Zelenskyy on Saturday evening, as part of the premier’s mediation efforts, his office said.
The hour-long phone conversation, Bennett’s office said, “dealt with ways to end the fighting in Ukraine and the efforts that Israel is making on this matter.”
Zelenskyy, who has spoken by phone several times with Bennett since the Russian invasion of his country last month, suggested to the prime minister that Jerusalem host cease-fire talks between Ukraine and Russia, adding that Israel could play an “important role” in efforts to end the war. Bennett also met a week ago with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow.
While meeting with reporters in Kyiv, Zelenskyy applauded those efforts. “I believe [Bennett] can play an important role, because Israel is a country with a lot of history and parallels (to our situation), as well as having a large migration of Jews from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus,” Zelensky said in a briefing on Saturday.
Israeli media has reported that Israel has offered to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Jerusalem.
However, when reached by The Media Line, the prime minister’s spokesman declined to comment on the issue.
The idea came from Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy and, from his point of view, there are not many countries that are allied with the West, and the United States that also have a very good line of communication with Russia
Dr. Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies department at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line that Israel has close ties with Russia, as they “work very closely to avoid military confrontation in Syria, they have in-depth contacts to make sure Israeli strikes don’t hit Russia.”
And, he says, Israel enjoys strong relations with Ukraine.
“The idea came from Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy and, from his point of view, there are not many countries that are allied with the West, and the United States that also have a very good line of communication with Russia,” Ryhhold said.
Rynhold explains that, despite the good relations, Israel doesn’t have any leverage on either side.
“What it has is it offers an opportunity to each side to compromise without directly compromising to the other side,” he said.
He adds that not being a member of NATO works to Israel’s advantage.
“France and Germany are part of NATO, making them representative of the military alliance, where Israel isn’t and that works to Israel’s benefit and makes it happen,” Rynhold said.
“They wouldn’t be backing down to NATO or the United States,” he said of the negotiators.
However, Professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on Israel-US relations and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told The Media Line that all this talk is part of the battle.
“What we are seeing is psychological warfare where the two sides are trying to influence public opinion,” he said.
Gilboa explains that Zelenskyy wants Jerusalem to host direct talks between him and Putin “because he thinks Western leaders believe Bennett has the best relations with both Putin and Biden. There aren’t too many people like that.”
On the surface, Gilboa says, the news sounds promising, but he explains that negotiations are not conducted in this manner.
“I don’t think that Putin will come to Jerusalem at all. These kinds of negotiations are not done in public, but rather secretly behind closed doors,” he explained.
Gilboa believes that it is premature to discuss the possibility of cease-fire talks.
“My judgment is that no place is at this time is suitable for negotiations. The question is not where to negotiate, but rather how and what to negotiate. Who should be the negotiators, and what would they be speaking about,” he said.
He explains that neither side is “at present ripe for resolution or any negotiations. From experience, it takes time before enough damage is inflicted for the two sides to be ready for negotiations. We call it ripeness.”
Both sides, Gilboa says, have suffered tremendous damage, daily bombardment of Ukraine has destroyed many of cities and infrastructure, and a portion of its territory is being occupied, while Russia is also suffering under unprecedented historical economic sanctions.
The United States and many Western governments took swift measures following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, imposing crippling economic and financial sanctions almost immediately, but Gilboa insists that, even with all these punitive measures, the Russian president isn’t ready to talk.
“Putin creates the impression that he is ready, but he is not ready to negotiate, he wants to impose a solution on the Ukraine,” he said.
Bennett’s conversations with Putin and Zelenskyy over the past couple of weeks haven’t yielded any breakthroughs, but Gilboa says it is because the prime minister is seen more as a messenger and not as a mediator.
“Bennett is not a mediator, he is more like a postman, he transfers messages; a mediator usually is more active in presenting ideas and proposals, this is not the case here,” Gilboa explained.
Israel has long had strong ties with both Ukraine and Russia, and it wants to take advantage of it to bridge the gap between the two adversaries, say observers.
But the relationship between Israel and Ukraine recently can be described as volatile, with Bennett evading blaming Russia directly for the war, while Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has done so.
Ukraine praised Israel for its diplomatic and humanitarian endeavors, but also has sharply criticized its hesitancy to help more.
That was evident when Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov warned that Israel’s lack of a clear stance against Russia’s invasion could cast a shadow over ties between Kyiv and Jerusalem in the coming years.
“Israel is showing an unexplained disconnect and reluctance to choose a side in the war in Ukraine,” he said in a video shared on social media.
“This will cause a growing lack of trust for many years because we will win, without a doubt, with you or without you,” Reznikov said.
“What can you do? You are very influential in the world and in your region,” he added. “You could express your position more actively.”
Bennett is not a mediator, he is more like a postman, he transfers messages; a mediator usually is more active in presenting ideas and proposals, this is not the case here
Also, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk on Friday voiced his frustration with Israel by downplaying the impact of Bennett’s mediation efforts, but adding that Israel has the potential to be a powerful advocate for his country.
Rynhold says Israel is under pressure to remain in line with American policy regarding Russia, and “Israel can’t deviate too much from the US policy towards Russia.”
The US and Europe have imposed a battery of crippling economic, financial, and sports and cultural sanctions on Russia. Israel has yet to follow suit.
However, Rynhold says the US views Israel as a “potentially good mediator, certainly better than Turkey who Washington doesn’t have as much leverage over.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Turkey last Thursday. No substantive progress was announced, but the two agreed to meet again.
In the end, Rynhold says that, despite the media hype, he is not certain that Israel will succeed in playing an active and significant role as a mediator.
“I’m not convinced that the Russians are enthusiastic as much as the Ukrainians are at the moment. Israel can provide an arena for a meeting, but it can’t make it happen, it doesn’t have that kind of clout,” he said, adding: “This is not Henry Kissinger.”
